News:
July 3, 2021
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu has questioned the kind of relationship the military intends to have with the civilian population with their recent acts of lawlessness.
Leading the Minority clad in red armbands, Mr. Haruna bemoaned the state of insecurity in the country occasioned by acts of lawlessness perpetrated on civilians by the military in recent times.
“There is indication that military-civil relation is at its lowest end and the undermine is led by men and women of the Ghana Armed Forces’.
Mr. Iddrisu who was reacting to the brutality meted out to some civilians in Wa, yesterday Thursday July 1, 2021 for an alleged phone snatching incident involving a man in mufti, which many believed might be a military man said the country was barely dealing with the Ejura shooting incident by the same military resulting in the death of two persons then this one.
“You could see men of the Ghana Armed Forces beating and humiliating Ghanaian’s civilians; the rights and freedoms of those Ghanaians are guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution. And stated that whatever grievances any of the soldiers has they cannot take the law into their own hands. “We will not accept a state of lawlessness in this country, a state of lawlessness led by men in uniform”
“And don’t forget, your uniform and number of ammunitions will not be enough to contain a civilian rejection that enough is enough”.
He expressed worry at the visibility of the military in internal matters, adding that they have raised that issue on the floor of the House, “not forgetting the sacrilege of what happened here with even with the invasion of this House by the military the night of 7th January”.
According to him, the security agencies have defined roles; “maintenance of order is the preserve and mandate of the police, territorial integrity for the Ghana Armed Forces, where necessary they can keep the peace, but they have no moral duty to undermine the peace, and to abuse the rights and freedoms of innocent Ghanaians, these cannot continue”, he lamented.
He thus appealed to the Speaker to direct the Committee on Defence and Interior to visit Wa and investigate the issue.
Meanwhile, the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu who presided of proceedings on Friday when the issue was brought to the floor of the House, directed the Defence and Interior Committee to visit Wa, investigate report to the House.
Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com